Highlands Council Voted to Hire Patrick DeBlasio

At last night’s Highlands Council meeting, they voted on hiring the current Tax collector to facilitate the CFO duties next year after both Tim Hill & the current CFO Steve Pfeffer endorsed him. Three out of five council members voted “yes” on the resolution. Both Chris Francy & Mayor Frank Nolan voted no.

DeBlasio will increase his current workload by adding at least 10 hours a week as Highlands’ new chief financial officer. That work load includes being a full time CFO in Carteret as well the part time treasurer of the school monies in Carteret, a part time CFO for both North Plainfield and Keansburg,and part time as Highlands’ tax collector.

He will be paid an additional $65,000 under his proposal, an amount close to what the outgoing Pfeffer earned in 2013, which will bring his total compensation to over $300,000. The agreement is for a 4 year term, so his start date is going to be May 1, 2014 and his term would be up on 12/31/2018.

It was decided that the job not be posted externally for others to apply, Council Rebecca Kane was quoted in the APP.com as saying “We don’t have time to start from scratch,” Kane said. “We have the person we want.”

When polled, most Highlanders wanted the position advertised to the outside before deciding on DeBlasio. Further 39% thought $65k was too much to pay for a 10 hour part time position.

10 comments

Another clear example of a profound lack of business saavy and experience on behalf of council. Get ready for the tax increase. I encourage you to contact the State to investigate how this gentleman can legitimately handle all of these positions.

It comes across a shear laziness of the council not to advertise the position externally first, or a minimum, negotiate the position/pay based on the whole picture. Pfeffer only had one other job, so $65k might be reasonable for a CFO that we share with 1 other town, its not reasonable to someone who has 3 other CFO jobs plus 2 non-CFO jobs.

Another well thought out and executed plan by the Highlands Council How irresponsible! It was decided that the job not be posted externally for others to apply, Council Rebecca Kane was quoted in the APP.com as saying “We don’t have time to start from scratch,” Kane said. “We have the person we want.”
It’s difficult enough to do one job well let alone 6?
PLEASE!

The 2015 financial forecast for Highlands is not pretty according to Pfeffer (our retiring CFO). The doom of bankruptcy and possible state intervention appears to be a strong possibility. Highlands needs a dedicated CFO and a dedicated professional Grant Writer to work side by side with Tim Hill our administrator to keep Highlands afloat. DeBlasio cannot provide the focus required while holding a full time & 5 other part-time positions. I wonder if this falls under the municipal codes for “best practices” and if the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) can point us taxpayers to some form of corrective action on this recent Council vote? Thanki you Chris Francy and Mayor Nolan for voting NO. Rebecca Kane is running for re-election … her statements reveal the insider mindset of our governing officials that has brought Highlands down to a condition of blight.

This makes me ill. I’m sure DeBlasio is good at what he does. That’s why he has so many jobs. But I was recently reminded of The Peter Principle: people get promoted to their level of their incompetency. Let’s hope he hasn’t hit his with the addition of this job.

I wonder how he’s going to juggle state reporting for 3 towns. How is he going to evaluate budgets for 3 towns? We are on a calendar year as is Carteret.

Wow. What a statement from Kane. She will never get my vote ever. Why not at least advertise? How do you know there isn’t someone else out there who has less on their plate and can make our town their FIRST priority as opposed to someone who will consider us one of many?

Administrator Tim Hill said that, like Pfeffer, DeBlasio will not have to work a minimum number of hours or even show up to Highlands’ municipal offices. Rather, DeBlasio will need to be accessible and to get the job done, Hill said.